The enemy was formidable, so a sizeable army needed to be assembled to ensure victory. Even so, how could an army of 32,000 conquer the host of Midian, Amalek, and the other eastern peoples whose number exceeded 120,000? Although one would wonder, the Lord was concerned that by a victory, the people’s hearts would be stirred up to boast that they had done it of themselves, so the legions were whittled down to a few who lapped with their hands (Judges 7:1-6). Although others of Naphtali, Ephraim, Asher, and Manasseh came out to the slaughter, the initial rout was accomplished by the three hundred with the pots, the jars, the lamps, and the swords (Judges 7:22-25). A lesson should be learned from all this: God’s strength does not depend on human ability. Isn’t this the lesson that Paul taught us when he declared, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness<\/em>” (II Corinthians 12:9)?<\/p>\n Let us restate that truth: God does not need human power or human accomplishment to achieve His goals!<\/p>\n New Testament Christianity will succeed where there is no organization beyond that of the local church. When a church, or several, sent a man out to proclaim Christ as Antioch did (Acts 13:3), the result was that the whole world had occasion to hear it (Colossians 1:23). No super organization, such as a missionary society or combination of independent churches, was necessary to accomplish this end. It succeeded because God was with the disciples and they had a mind to work the work of God.<\/p>\n When one church was in danger of having its candlestick removed, as was Ephesus, God felt no need to instruct Smyrna to take any action concerning the matter (see Revelation 2:1-7; 2:8-11). These were independent congregations – not tied together by any alliance or inter-congregational fellowship. They were not part of any denomination and did not behave as if they were!<\/p>\n Brethren fear true non-denominational Christianity because we need the comfort afforded by something larger than a local church. After all, being truly independent suggests smallness and weakness, which are intolerable. Brethren, there are two things we need to know:<\/p>\n Therefore, let us not be frightened by New Testament Christianity, but let us glory in it as we see the power of God winning souls to Christ and success surrounding us everywhere!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Floyd Chappelear via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 4, December 1994 The enemy was formidable, so a sizeable army needed to be assembled to ensure victory. Even so, how could an army of 32,000 conquer the host of Midian, Amalek, and the other eastern peoples whose number exceeded 120,000? Although one would wonder, the Lord…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1277,1508],"class_list":["post-94547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-denominationalism","tag-institutionalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30975,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-jael-morally-right-in-killing-sisera\/","url_meta":{"origin":94547,"position":0},"title":"Was Jael morally right in killing Sisera?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering about Jael. Was what she did right? It's shocking to our modern sensibilities (or at least to mine) to read the story as presented in Judges 4. And yet Deborah and Barak (who seem to be relatively moral people?) praise her for everything she did in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63086,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/neglect\/","url_meta":{"origin":94547,"position":1},"title":"Neglect","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Judges 4:4-16 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The story of Deborah and Barak is one that many remember \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In part it is because it involved a woman who was both a prophetess and a judge \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She didn\u2019t fight the battle, that was left to Barak, but she did travel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27021,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-have-some-people-killed-if-murder-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":94547,"position":2},"title":"Why did God have some people killed if murder is wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: in Judges, some people were risen up by God to bring Israel out of the hands of other nations.\u00a0 But why do so many of them murder other people? Ehud stabs a king and Jael drives a post through Sisera's head.\u00a0 I thought God wasn't allowed to lead people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35445,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-deborah-lead-worship-and-preached\/","url_meta":{"origin":94547,"position":3},"title":"Did Deborah lead worship and preached?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read that Deborah did not offer sacrifices as the men did but did lead worship and preach. Can you provide scriptures to clarify this? Answer: I can't provide Scriptures because the claims are not based on Scripture. Deborah was a prophetess and served as a judge in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-we-told-the-story-of-jael\/","url_meta":{"origin":94547,"position":4},"title":"Why Are We Told the Story of Jael?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall There is only one woman in the Bible who directly killed a man. Her name was Jael. She hammered a tent peg into the skull of Sisera (Judges 4). Why are we told this story? Considering she is the only woman in the Bible to have killed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46942,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-samuels-sons-counted-among-the-judges\/","url_meta":{"origin":94547,"position":5},"title":"Why aren’t Samuel’s sons counted among the judges?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Concerning your post recently about\u00a0whether Abimelech was a judge or not: I remember a passage concerning the people wanting a king because of the evil of Samuel's sons, whom he appointed to be judges over the people in I Samuel 8:1-5. I'm not sure if this would help your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n